Simple Pleasures

I tend to be a bit hyper-aware of simple pleasures.  I'm sure it is very obnoxious at times.  Oh well.

Having said that, I know that the great population out there get as excited as I do about things like new office supplies!!  

Thought I'd share a recent banter I shared with an old friend.  I used to work with her, and we used to love getting new office supplies.  Haven't spoken with her in a couple of months, and knew that she got a new job, so I specifically reached out to her to acquire her new e-mail address, as I needed to communicate with her on an emergency basis for the explicit reason of knowing that she would fully, fully appreciate what I was about to tell her...



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From: Veronica 

Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 12:22 PM

To: Olivia

Subject: Hello.

I wanted to let you know that I am treating myself to this.  I know you can appreciate this.  That is why I needed to tell you in an urgent manner. I needed someone who really appreciates it to know.

Thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,
Veronica


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From: Olivia 

Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2016 1:47 PM

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: Hello.

Love! Completely worth the splurge. I’ve been on an erasable pen kick lately. It’s my new fav thing.
How’s life?

Olivia


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From: Veronica 

Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 2:02 PM

To: Olivia

Subject: RE: Hello.

I feel like I used erasable pens back in the early 2000’s and I did not like them because the ink was very light.  I like ink that grabs on and stays.  Because I spill things.  All the time.  Case in point:

Highlighters are not waterproof.

Okay have to step into a meeting – more later.

Veronica

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From: Olivia 

Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2016 2:48 PM

To:Veronica

Subject: RE: Hello.

Yikes – well things have changed a lot in the last 16 years, V. You might like them.

Click here for the link to them.


Olivia

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From: Veronica

Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 2:59 PM

To: Olivia

Subject: RE: Hello.

I don’t know – it seems like a bad idea for someone like me.  Especially since the actual pen says:

I don’t know.  I am always aggressively frictiony with my papers and notebooks.  Butttt thank you for educating me.  I could pass this info to someone who is a better caretaker of things.

Life is good.  I decorated the heck out of my house for Christmas, and I got a real tree and a real wreath and decorated the things and watched the heck out of hallmark channel Christmas movies.  It was great.  I was aggressively in the holiday spirit.  Probably because I’m actually dead inside and feel nothing, so I am trying to fake it till I make it.

So because of that, I have spent the last four days trying to get my house back in order, cleaned up.  The cats are very entertained.

Okay then.

Fondly,
Veronica

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From: Olivia 

Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 9:33 AM

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: Hello.

Well, definitely pass it along. It’s a great pen…for those who don’t have a lot of friction in their lives?

That’s awesome that you really got in the Christmas spirit! I love Christmas, but I’m not sure I decorated as much as you did. I also don’t have cable so there was no Hallmark channel watching…

Olivia

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From: Veronica

Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 11:48 AM

To: Olivia 

Subject: RE: Hello.

Listen.

I’m being totally serious right now.

I don’t even know how it happened, but this just arrived with my other order of Sharpie pens.

I still got my sharpies, but these were with them.

I swear, I did not even order them on purpose, and by the time I sent you that original photo/email, the order was already placed.

I like them!! I am glad they ended up with me!!  They are gel-writing, so I like that!!

Fondly,
Veronica

P.S. please note how awesome my handwriting is.  Thank you.


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From: Olivia 

Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 10:54 AM

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: Hello.

Hi! Apologies for the delay – those pens look AMAZING! I want them. I only have black and blue – no fun colors.

Olivia


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*****

Hope you are surviving this blizzard!  I've been trapped in my house for 4 (?) days now.  It honestly hasn't been that bad - Smidgen has mentioned that this has been the best week.

30 inches of snow is hard to move around.

We (the neighborhood) were told that we would not be plowed out until Thursday, so we got together and did the dang thing ourselves!!!

Okay, be safe.  Take care of each other.

What Is Up, Getting Stuck, And The Foundation For Life: H2O

One way I can tell if I am going to get along with someone is if they appreciate little things, and I don't just mean stopping to admire a beautiful sunset, or appreciating a stranger holding a door for you.  Yes, those things are great, too, but when someone (rudely) interrupts someone else mid-sentence to say something like, "Tranche?  Did you just use the word 'tranche'?  Is that even a real word?"  I know that we are going to get along.

This is one of the things I particularly love about my close friends.  Now, from time to time, Sue and I will occasionally get "stuck" on words or names of towns or places.  

By "stuck," I mean, like a record skipping... we'll just repeat the word once every five seconds for fifteen minutes or so at a time. Plate. Shibuya. Hancock. Wawa. Frizzzzllleeeeeeee Frizzzllllllleburrrrg Frrizzzzzzz.  Friizzzzzllllll.

And before you go feeling bad for Larry, who has to endure Sue and I repeating variations of those words for extended lengths of time (due to being the driver on road trips, thus making Sue and I worse behaved than most five year old children,) just know that Larry is secretly one of us.

We're all minding our business (and behaving, for once) one day at archery, when Larry quite out of no where brings to our attention that the word "up" is probably one of the most complicated words in the English language.  

So, we've been stuck.... er... hung "up" on this for a while.  Watch - now you'll start notice the varying uses of the word, too.

what's up

stand up

sit up

throw up

mess up

free up

up chuck

laid up

paid up

stayed up

made up

screwed up

bolt up

write up

spit up

fill up

kick up

eat up

drink up

wake up

look up

pick up

light up

shoot up

stink up

push up

back up

trip up

hook up

liquored up

perk up

cut up

tear up

up to the line

up to par

up to snub

feeling up to it

hush up

make up

shook up

put up

bandage up

lock up

give up

buy up

tear up (crying)

open up

wash up

scrub up

wrap up

stuck up

work up

listen up

butter up

suck up

grow up

lift up

blow up

heat up

pony up

scoot up

lighten up

stick up

shut up

tee up

hurry up

cozy up

pent up

saddle up

clam up

mosey on up

huddle up

shape up

toss up

sign up

button up

hicc...up

Thought it was never gonna stop, didn't you? 

Neither did I, one night Sue got on a kick of it.

Don't worry, we'll think of more.  You can post some, too.

But the fun doesn't stop there.

There was this epiphany I had last week at work: 

Veronica 10:24 AM:

what is "cipated"

if something is cipated what does that mean

because anticipated

anti

cipated

so if you anti-cipate something, you are guessing.... or planning

so if you are just cipating, then I guess you are... not planning... 

or giving no further thought to....

So, like, I am cipating my plans for NYE.

Okay good chat.

Elaine Crossfit 10:29 AM:

I don't think cipating is a word though

Veronica 10:29 AM:

exactly.

#bothered

Crossfit 10:29 AM:

#englishisdumb

~ ~ time passes ~ ~

Crossfit 10:45 AM:

ugh now you have my trying to guess what cipating could mean

And many of you who are my friends on Facebook are familiar with my hashtag ‪#‎ThingsAnalystsSay‬, and will remember this recent post: 

Today at lunch: This question was presented: How are decades counted?

I said they end at 9. So Analyst 1 says, “ok so the 00 year starts a new decade.” I said yes. Analyst 2 fervently disagreed. 

He says that in the very first year, people didn't walk around saying it was year zero, they said it was year 1. I said, “False. If you have a baby, you say the baby is 8 months old. You don't say he is one if he is not one.” Analyst 2 disagreed. Analyst 2 is wrong, but he would never let me be correct, so…

But then Analyst 1 and I both said that people in year 0 did not know that it was year 0, so it’s a moo point. #ThingsAnalystsSay

You might think that it's silly and over because it is a moo point, 

but alas... it is, in some way, going to stick with you now.

Scotty 12:47 PM:

I don't think either matters because the people in that time didn't think that way, it was only after the fact.

Veronica 12:47 PM:

agreed

Scotty 12:47 PM:

and its like 2015 years ago so who cares..

or was it 2016 years ago?

ahhhh

Veronica 12:47 PM:

And here we go.

so it will be officially 2016 years ago on NYE.

or is it NYD?

NYD.

Something else I am always thinking about (and I mean at least twice a day) is water.

Yes, water.

Water fascinates me, and I don't mean to sound like a pirate.  Yes of course I could stare off into the sea, watching the horizon for hours upon end, like any normal person (or pirate,) but even at a very basic level, just the very science of water fascinates me.

Do you know what the most powerful element in the world is?  Water.  

No beast nor creation can actually outdo the power of H's and O's.  These two little boxes from the periodic table when put together are EVERYTHING.  

The strongest steel will, eventually, cave to the power of H's and O's.  Rock formations were formed and/or can be destroyed by the ocean blue.  Humans, and all life forms, cannot live more than three days without replenishment of water.  Why?  Because it is what we are (mostly) made out of.  It is what this entire planet is mostly made out of.  Earth is earth because of what the water decides to do.  Wind is wind because of what the oceans decide to do.  Fire is no longer fire in the presence of water.  Humans live by it, humans die by it.  Too much water, we are destroyed.  Too little water, we wither and are destroyed.  Water is to me in and of itself an argument for the existence of God.

And this valuable resource... this precious commodity... this thing we need to exist - it surrounds us in America, in our daily lives.  We probably don't even think about it.  Do you?  I think about it so much.  In modern day America (or any first world country), we have grown so accustomed to having SO much water available to us everywhere, that (as long as things are functioning properly) we don't even give a worry to it.  

I was making cookies a couple of nights ago, and I must have turned on the faucet 50 times to rinse things or my hands. Crystal clear, completely clean and safe water, being used... wasted even... on the silliness of rinsing, or flushing toilets, or extra-long showers.  Meanwhile, there are places in the world where people can't find one glass of potable water in a day... or a week. 

My friend who moved to a (kind of remote) area of Brazil about three or four years ago has never received such an aggressive wake-up call than when she first had to go without water as you and I know it.  She just came home for the holidays, and she described to me at length how she recycles water.  This discussion, of course, fascinated me.

The water that she, her husband, and baby don't consume is used as bath water for the baby.  Then, they'll use the bathwater in the washing machine to wash clothes.  She collects that water, and then uses it to scrub the floors (which has to be done at least once a day in Brazil because it's very dirty where she lives.)  She's very creative with how she recycles water, and let's just say that by the time water makes it to the garden or grass, it's been used quite a few times.  

A different friend of mine is from Kenya, and the water situation is very interesting there.  In fact, it can be considered a business.  Water = capitalism.  The government will give you some each day, but you can also purchase more from those who have well pumps.  And everyone needs more than the government gives them.

Can you even imagine?  I can only imagine it in theory (since I obviously think about it a lot,) but I don't know that I could imagine it in practice.  We wouldn't last a week here.  Think of how this area shuts down when there are electricity power outages, or when water can't function as normal in our plumbing.  We literally shut down - businesses and homes can't function.  This thought terrifies me, as I think of how it could be applied to terrorism, even.  Take away the water.  Throughout history, there have been many ways of winning battles through poisoning creeks and such, remember?

Our lands are ruined without rain, 

and they are destroyed by it.  

Our tallest and most lush mountains - created and sustained by water.

Kate, I selected this image for you; hope it doesn't bring back feelings of panic. But we were there - we saw with our eyes the tallest peaks. And we were literally hanging off the side of the planet. 

And the fields of our greatest vast spaces - water.

You see field. I see water and sun.

Water cleans all wounds, of flesh or land.  It's everything!  We are fully at the mercy of water.  It could be said that if you control the H's and O's, you control everything... but then again, H's and O's cannot be contained.  Not really.

Water is life.  Appreciate the luxury you have next time you touch a faucet.  Do not take it for granted.